Because this is all I have to offer…………a whole bag of nothing

Bag of Randomness for Friday, August 7, 2015

This summer is killing me emotionally, coming of age wise. Letterman retires, Stewart hangs it up, my old phone died, I turn 40 at the end of the month. I’m not sure I can take all of this. Hey U2, please stick around just a little bit longer for my sake.

Stewart finale thoughts:

I loved how they brough back all the old correspondents, even though you could see that coming. The same goes with the Trevor Noah appearance and bit.

It was nice to see Wyatt Cenac make an appearance after his so called falling out with Stewart. You can say the same about Sen. John McCain.

Craig Kilborn is still alive.

Stephen Colbert is good at going off script, and as good as he can be going into character, it’s easy to tell when he’s being sincere.

I love all the Arby’s appearances.

The Goodfellas behind the scenes skit was fabulous. It reminded me of Letterman’s behind the scenes piece, but this was much better, and I always love it when the man in charge is able to give all the off camera staff a hat tip.

And just like Letterman, he didn’t want the teary sendoff, he just sent it off to a great band and made the show run long.

“This show isn’t ending, we’re merely taking a pause in the conversation…That’s our show…Here it is, my Moment of Zen.”

I’ve posted this before, but I shall post it again. Stewart found out MTV was cancelling his show and at the height of David Letterman’s fame, he made sure to be on Stewarts last show and told him, “Cancellation should not be confused with failure.” I’d say Stewart rebounded well.

There’s a Republican presidential candidate debate with Donald Trump as the headliner and there’s no ‘Daily Show’ coverage from either Stewart or Noah. Man, they scheduled the finale and reboot badly.

I’m looking to get a screen protector for my phone, any suggestions? Off hand, I’m thinking of getting something from Zagg or BodyGuardz.

DaughterGeeding is about to enter kindergarten at a charter school and yesterday we took her in for an evaluation at her new school, basically some tests to see where’s she at. The charter school is about to start its first year of existence, is run in collaboration with a college in Michigan, and seems very strict about things. For instance, kids have to wear uniforms with the school’s emblem. A lot of the staff moved down from Michigan and seem a bit cold and sterile, and they were all under-talkers. When they spoke to us, it was as if they thought they were speaking at an acceptable volume but it sounded like a whisper to both me and WifeGeeding, and we weren’t in an environment that needed to be quiet for any reason. It makes me wonder if Michigan folks are quiet people like many think New Yorkers talk fast and Texans talk slow.

It’s going to take a while getting used to a school that doesn’t have a principal but a headmaster. It sounds so formal.

Construction wise, the school is going through finishing touches, and even though the assistant headmaster gave WifeGeeding and BoyGeeding a mini tour while I was away filling out paperwork, I wasn’t allowed to check anything out.

The teacher’s aide that evaluated DaughterGeeding was going over her completed test with us because WifeGeeding asked about something, and in doing so, the aide discovered that he looked over an entire page of tests he was supposed to give DaughterGeeding. I wonder if WifeGeeding didn’t ask a question that caused him to look at the paper, would the blank page be counted as if she couldn’t comprehend the material or if they would have contacted us to come back and finish the overlooked section.

In some ways, I’m starting to see me becoming a “that parent”. For instance, DaughterGeeding can write the entire alphabet, we’ve seen her do it many times at home, but she left out several letters on her evaluation.

I remember watching the episode of the Johnny Carson ‘Tonight Show’ after his son’s death from a car accident. At the very end of the show, he asked for a few brief moments to talk about his son. He addressed his son’s passing and stated he wanted to show a picture of his son, one better than his driver’s license photo which has been plastered all over the news. From that moment, whenever I see a picture of a dead person on the news, I wonder how that photo was selected, and I wonder what’s the last picture people will see of me. In a way, I kinda think it will be like the Elvis stamp – Fat Elvis or Thin Elvis? Chubby Geeding, or Chubbier Geeding. Longhaired Geeding, or Bald Geeding. Bearded Geeding, or Clean Shaven Geeding. Hopefully, not a younger looking Hitler Geeding.

I watched a little bit of the debate last night. I’ll have to hand it to Fox News (something I thought I’d never say) but they seemed hard on the candidates and asked some hard personal questions, with some good follow-up questions. I expected the candidates to lay off each other and focus on a unified message of anti-Obama and anti-Hillary, but they seemed to go after one another quite a bit. In particular, Christie and Paul’s exchanged seemed heated.

TIME – Earlier on Thursday, Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina—or someone on her staff—used a hotel printer to print out a closing statement for the Fox News debate, then forgot to pick it up.

Rick Perry gets a pass for possibly saying “Ronald Raven”. He definitely knows who the man was probably just had debate dry mouth.

The Daily Show hasn't been part of my regular routine for a while now, but I've still watched an occasional episode or clips online. The farewell was great, and whoever wrote/produced the Goodfellas homage deserves an Emmy for that bit. It was masterfully done.

I would agree that The Daily Show sendoff was near perfect. The correspondents was hilarious and forced in a way that only they could get away with. The Goodfellas-inspired segment was great. Trevor Noah has massive shoes to fill and I still wonder if they missed the mark a bit by letting John Oliver (and to some degree, Colbert, but I would argue that he left for a much bigger upgrade) slip away to another network.

As a huge Johnny fan, I read 'Bombastic' Bushkin's Carson bio last year. By all accounts, Ruth Carson was an odd woman who never could acknowledge or praise her son's success, despite his many attempts to gain her favor. Carson's father comes off as something of a milqetoast.

I'm told that my grandfather did not attend his parents' funerals in the '50s,even though they lived in the same city, although I've never heard why. It seems strange in today's emo-driven world, but in the past, people who were estranged apparently just moved on with their lives.

I am so, SO sad about Jon heading off to enjoy his much-deserved sabbatical. I haven't had it in me to watch either Wednesday's or Thursday's shows. Just listening to a review has left me in tears.

BUT – there's some small solace in the knowledge that The Boss made it to NYC from Jersey and performed for his friends and for us. Keith – I'm surprised you're not as big a fanboy of Bruce as you are of U2. The man is the musical equivalent of Jon Stewart.